{"id":379669,"date":"2024-07-22T12:11:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T10:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/07\/22\/biden-bruxelles-borrell-trump-ue\/"},"modified":"2024-07-26T14:51:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T12:51:08","slug":"biden-brussels-borrell-eu-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/07\/22\/biden-brussels-borrell-eu-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden’s step back seen from Brussels. Borrell: For EU-US relations, “it will make a big difference who wins the election”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Respect for Joe Biden’s decision and the democratic process in the United States. However, there is some\u00a0concern because the US\u00a0President’s withdrawal from the race for the White House increases the bogeyman of a Donald Trump comeback. EU Foreign Ministers are meeting in Brussels the morning after Biden’s step back and\u00a0wondering about the future<\/a> of transatlantic relations<\/strong>: depending on who will be the next US\u00a0President, for the EU High Representative, Josep Borrell<\/strong>, “there will definitely be a big difference.”<\/p>\n

To grasp the magnitude of Borrell’s warning, one only needs to\u00a0glance at the main topics on the\u00a0agenda<\/a> at today’s (July 22) meeting of EU ministers: support for Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East<\/strong>. Two scenarios on which–should he be elected in November– the Republican tycoon has already shown that he can twist the positions of the transatlantic axis. Without delving into the\u00a0bilateral relations between the\u00a0allies on the two sides of the Atlantic<\/strong>,\u00a0already\u00a0put in great difficulty during Trump’s first term. “We have worked very well with Biden, but if he decides to withdraw because he thinks another candidate may have more strength to make the Democratic Party win, we respect him,” Borrell said upon entering the Council, responding in Italian to a question from the press.<\/p>\n

Of the same tenor was the comment of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock<\/strong>: “I have great respect for US President Joe Biden’s choice to put his country’s interests before his own,” she said. Berlin appears to be one of the Chancelleries most concerned about Trump’s possible to the White House.\u00a0According to the Financial Times<\/a>, Baerbock has formed an informal ‘crisis group’ to discuss and prepare for the scenario that could materialize after Nov. 5.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, French Foreign Minister St\u00e9phane S\u00e9journ\u00e9<\/strong> reassured that “nothing will change.” Concept – or wish – that\u00a0Italian Deputy\u00a0Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani <\/strong>agrees with. “We are convinced that whoever the President will be, Italy will remain a privileged interlocutor,” he said. According to the leader of Forza Italia and government ally of Salvini and Meloni, “it is not up to us to interfere with the election campaign<\/strong>,” but “to respect the choices that\u00a0Americans will make.”<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Kamala Harris and\u00a0Joe Biden (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares Bueno<\/strong>, Spain’s foreign minister,\u00a0 shows “affection” as well as respect for the 81-year-old President, on which there were doubts about his mental acuity, and for a “difficult decision” that instead shows “depth of vision and sense of state.” In\u00a0Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez<\/strong> had already communicated “admiration and recognition.” In a note<\/a> posted on X, the Spanish socialist Premier recalled that with his “determination and leadership,” Joe Biden had enabled the United States to “overcome the economic crisis that followed the pandemic and the grave assault on Capitol Hill<\/strong>,” the attempted insurrection fomented by Trump\u00a0on January 6, 2021. As if to underscore what is at stake, Sanchez also called Washington’s support for Ukraine to date “exemplary.”\u00a0And that could be seriously jeopardized should the Republican candidate win.<\/p>\n

However, “Biden’s withdrawal from the race\u00a0does not automatically mean Trump’s victory,” said the Belgian\u00a0Foreign Minister\u00a0Hadja Lahbib<\/strong>. The Democratic Party convention, scheduled for Aug. 19-22 in Chicago, will name who will run instead of the President, but all focus is\u00a0converging on Biden’s deputy, Kamala Harris. In the note in which he announced his step back, Biden said he was endorsing the candidacy of Harris<\/strong>, who in turn confirmed that she would take the baton from the Democratic leader. “I wish all the best to Kamala Harris, who will perhaps now take the lead, a strong woman,” said the Belgian Minister, whose endorsement likely reflects the hope of the entire EU not to deal with The Donald again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In comments from the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the 27 Member States in Brussels, “respect for a difficult decision” and anxiety about a possible return of Donald Trump to the White House emerge. Tajani: “Whoever will be President, Italy will remain privileged interlocutor.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":379621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25954,28064,26104],"class_list":["post-379669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-foreign-affairs-council-en","tag-joe-biden-en","tag-usa-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379669"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379722,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379669\/revisions\/379722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}